The Sea Change Prince
by Cobainlover4ever
Summary: This is a story of two brothers whose origin is of another world; one of peace, love and equity. Music is found within the every part of nature: the wind, sea and sky. Being chosen by their Elders, the brothers enter the human world to share their extraordinary gifts which are born from the music which lives inside them.


**The Sea Change Prince**

By:

Bree T. Donovan

Full fathom five, thy father lies

Of his bones are coral made,  
Those are pearls that were his eyes,  
Nothing of him that doth fade,  
But doth suffer a sea-change,  
into something rich and strange,  
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,  
Ding-dong.

Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.

~Shakespeare _, The Tempest_

 **Prologue**

 **An Ocean Away**

A young girl of eighteen with sun- flecked ginger hair walked the hushed morning beach. Deep in contemplation she didn't take notice of the incandescently blue ocean and how it seemed to spill directly into the horizon. She didn't listen for the song of gulls happily ushering in the morning. She took for granted that the warm carpet of soft, yielding sand would always slip between her toes. The golden sun shone in jewel-like glory, but the girl did not greet it with gratitude.

She stuck a hand into the pocket of her long, white dress. Her most precious possessions, two small, gloriously colored stones were kept there. Now she smiled. Turning the treasures between her fingers, she closed her eyes and imagined the stones as her children. The rare crimson colored one would be her red-haired son. He would be passionate and quick to immerse himself into every aspect of living. This child would have the fire of the sun in his center. His name would be Akash, Indian for sky,

The other, pale blue stone would be her fair-haired son; a pensive, shy boy taking in all people with his kind, luminous eyes. This child would be imbued with the waves of the rolling sea. He would ebb and flow with life. He would be called, Azura or sky blue.

The young girl imagined her two beautiful sons would be the perfect complement to one another; a red, burring fire, and a slow, blue flame; the golden sun in the bluest sky. They would be her gift to the world.

Over the next few years, the young girl became a young woman. She spent her days alone perched on the mosey rocks imbedded in the sea. This was her refuge. She had been fortunate because she was born of a unique group of beings mandated to live _in_ the world, but not _of_ it. The young woman understood her only task was to meditate. These meditations translated into the most beautiful music to the human ear. But, she had ceased her devotions depriving the world of sublime, healing melody.

The world was cruel. The young woman believed that her litanies were useless. She became angry witnessing how hateful humans could be towards one another. She concluded these barbaric people did not deserve anything of beauty. She gripped her exquisite stones day and night, her fingernails cutting into the skin of her palm. The woman had a terrible foreboding. Once, she had wanted nothing more than for her stones to become part of the world. But, now that she was older and bitter towards the humans- something her people did not tolerate, she held more tightly onto her effects.

A wise elder approached the girl on her twenty-first birthday. She wanted to sprint the length of the beach at the sight of him, fearing the reprisal of her people. The elder offered a benevolent smile as he eased himself down onto the rocks. They sat together for a long while in silence. Finally, the elder made a simple observation.

"It is a beautiful sound."

The wind whipped the woman's strawberry-blonde hair covering her eyes.

"What is?"

She inquired pushing bits of hair from her face.

"The sea, my girl!" The elder's face beamed. "Can't you hear it rushing towards the sky? The wind ques a wonderful symphony."

"I don't hear anything but waves."

"Because you have become the thing you most dislike."

"I don't believe you."

"Search your heart," he chuckled, "or your pocket I should say. The stones you carry are more precious to you than anyone or anything."

"And why is that wrong?" She quipped. "Are we not meant to love special things?"

"Yes, indeed we are." His arms crossed over his broad chest. "But, our hold should not be so tight as to make them our possessions alone."

Tiny bumps of chilled flesh rose up on her arms.

"What are you saying?"

"I think you already know."

"I won't…I can't…" She swallowed back tears. "How can I exist without them?"

"You will not have to. When you release them into the world, they will bring your blessings and love."

Pushing the hair from her face, she stared directly into his gentle, grey eyes.

"Will I ever see them again?"

"This will happen when you let them go. Do you wish for them to remain dormant in that picket of yours forever?"

"No…"

He brushed her shoulder with a soft hand.

"Go on then, be the mother you were destined to be."

Her eyes burned with tears. Never again would she touch the reassuring smoothness of their surface; her talisman, her sons.

"There is no such time as _never_ , my dear," the elder directed his glance towards the crashing waves. "Not in our world. Let them go and you will see."

The swelling in her breast was a mixture of sorrow, loss and pity.

"Who will care for them in such a terrible place as earth?"

"They will have each other. And they will learn to care for others. This is how they will build a legacy of love."

She kissed each stone and brushed them with her tears. She prayed once again for Akash and Azura and for herself; that someday they would be reunited. Standing tall she tossed the two simultaneously into the restless current. The sea rose up, the white tips of waves bubbling onto the sand which was dragged along in a sudden shift of direction.

The elder took the woman's cold hand.

"They are on their way now."

"May they be strong and true."

She uttered her last supplication; it was a minor chord twisting slowly in the air. It was hope in a single blue note.

A clam will take an invading irritation such as a grain of sand, and out of this bothersome interloper create an incandescent jewel-a pearl. The mollusk is not aware of the coveted prize. The creation itself is beautiful to the human eye, although the pearl does not try to be loved or desired. It is inherently lovely; a miracle of nature.

But what of the two stones thrown into such a vast ocean? It is one thing for a clam to take a tiny grain of sand and fashion one pearl. Some might say this is a miraculous happening. It is another thing entirely when the sea embraces two remarkable stones and releases them onto the shore, two human beings; one with hair the color of strawberries and sunlight, the other with a halo of pale hair. Some might say this is an act of magic.

Akash and Azura became sons of the earth. Their mama called the red-haired, older boy Duane, and the younger, Gregg. Their surname was Allman, its origination meaning 'all men.' This is their story.

Donovan

The Sea Change Prince

2017


End file.
